Now let's go to New York during the 1950-60's to hear
some good blues!

The
Big Apple, and Harlem in particular, nested a strong post-war down-home blues
scene that had nevertheless to stay behind the large shadow of the much popular
R&B/ Jazz scene. Alongside some well known names (Brownie & Sonny,
Champion Jack Dupree, Gary Davis), there were many good bluesmen (and women)
who, thanks to a fair number of independent labels and studio facilities, had
the opportunity to record a couple of singles that would be a pity to keep too
hidden and underappreciated.

Betty James is the recording name of
Nadine Renaye (or maybe Renée) who, born in Louisiana, was singing in Baltimore
(Md) backed by her husband and son. She tried her luck for the small Cee Jay
label in 1961 and her own penned I'm a little mixed up stirred enough
local sales to persuade Chess Records to reissue the title with a wider
distribution. Koko Taylor, under the tutelage of Willie Dixon, recorded this
blues and made a hit from it. After that, Betty would come back twice in the
studios with six more top notch rocking blues but without any success. One of
her single was also issued under her real name of Nadine Renaye! Her music is rooted in the Piedmont blues style with a strong Blind Boy Fuller influence. We don't know
what happened to her although her granddaughter wrote some laconic lines on the
web about her "wonderful grandmother"! If some US searchers could
find and interview her, it would be great.

Almost
as obscure is B. Brown (Daniel
Brown) who hailed from Los Angeles (where he recorded a first single as a
drummer!), resurfacing in New York as a very good harp player under the name of
B. Brown, certainly to cash on the success of the much well known Buster Brown
who enjoyed at that time a massive hit with his classic Fanny Mae. B.
Brown waxed a handful of excellent 45's, generally backed by his friend Charles
Walker (see an article about this fine bluesman on this blog) and Wild Jimmy
Spruill. After a divorce, B. Brown left New York to resettle in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, recording again in a more Soul vein and being in touch with his friends Noble Watts and June Bateman until his death during the 1990's.

Alonzo Scales, a singer and guitarist born
in North Carolina around the turn of the XXth century came to New York during
the 2nd World War, playing with Champion Jack Dupree (and recording with him as
early as 1948) and Brownie Mc Ghee and Sonny Terry who backs him on his nice
last 1955 session. Scales quit the music scene during the 60's and died in New
York City in 1975.

What a delight to come back from work and discover so many great blues gems! And this is such a pleasure to read your texts through which we can feel so much passion!Thanks a great lot for all the hard work and dedication

Although the bilingual approach doubles your workload, please keep it and "ne sacrifiez pas le Français." As with your blues encyclopedia, which I have in French and English, you convey nuances in French which are sometimes lost or not as evident in English. Moreover, in addition to the great music, one of the most compelling features of this blog is that it is bilingual. Of course we Anglophones comment more, we have had a long history whether in England or the United States of imposing our views and opinions on the world whether they are solicited or not.

As someone who was born in the United States and whose first language is English, I find the tendency to assume that everyone in the world can or must speak English alarming. The first European languages spoken by a significant group of immigrants in this continent were Spanish and French (les Québécoises se souviennent) a fact that seems lost in our linguistic history. After living in Texas for ten years, it became clear to me that for many Spanish speakers, the border crossed them, they did not cross the border. In addition, in the neighboring state of Louisiana, efforts are being made to revive French in the classrooms of Cajun country. Multilingualism is not just a skill, it is a necessity for commerce and communication with others. It also ensures that the speaker regards the world from more than one perspective. Were you to write only in English, you would exclude francophones who are not proficient in English as well as many other readers other countries who speak and read French, but not English. Please don't interpret lack of comments as lack of interest or appreciation. I find it difficult to write comments but do so at the risk of embarrassing myself to convey to the blogger that I greatly appreciate his or her efforts. To restrict to English a blog that communicates and celebrates the expansiveness of blues from its native region to other countries seems to me to be an inherent contradiction in purpose. But then I have my biases and am thinking of buying your encyclopedia in its Spanish edition because my youngest daughter is majoring in Spanish and other studies.

I majored in French and German in college and have been amazed by how many people in this country regard multilingualism as a difficult intellectual achievement. After college I worked with immigrants who did not have the same educational opportunities that I did, but who spoke two or three languages with ease and competence. In addition, I met first and second generation U. S. citizens who spoke Polish, Italian, Portuguese, French, and Creole. Anglophone fears not withstanding, the United States has never been 100 per cent monolingual and, Anglo paranoia notwithstanding, English is not waning or remotely threatened as a national language. The children of immigrants use it almost exclusively by the second or third generation. Today from lack of use and daily exposure, I struggle to write in French so I use English because it is my first language but I greatly enjoy the French articles and comments because they help me combat further atrophy of my competence.

Of course, there is a political undertone to my comments because language is often a political issue. I regard the bilingual approach as more expansive and informative and not a concession to those who are threatened by merely seeing or hearing another language. Alors, je n'écris pas bien français, mais je trouve votre articles et votre compils très intéressantes. Merci pour votre travail.

Thank you very much, Felimid, for your long and thoughtful comments. So, I will continue to post in French as well in English. As you mention the translation of my Enyclopedia of the blues in english, I would like to say that I had no control at all on it. I didn't choose the translator, I didn't know her at all and had never had any contact whatsoever. And I didn'r receive proofs of the translation that I discovered only after the book was published. The english text has strong mistakes that I would have easily corrected if I had the chance to do so! For this blog, I don't translate from the French to the English but I write first the text in French and then in English, so it is not always absolutely similar. And I'm pretty sure there are some english mistakes for I still have troubles with the english prepositions (for, at, to etc..) . So my apologizes for those to you all. All the best

Having had several listens to this collection now Gerard I thought I'd get back to you with some feedback.

Betty James is certainly the standout artist here and "I'm A Little Mixed Up" is a great rocking track. To the best of my knowledge I've never heard Betty James before, yet I was vaguely familiar with Koko Taylor's version of "Mixed Up" so it's nice to hear this original version. The final track by Betty "Salt In Your Coffee" has more country feel to it and reminds me a bit of Jessie Mae Hemphill.

B. Brown is another artist I was unfamiliar with until hearing him on this collection. There's certainly some energetic guitar playing on some of these tracks here by guitarists Cool Papa Sadler, Charles Walker & Wild Jimmy Spruill. Plus B. Brown blew some good down-home harp. As you have pointed out the Buster Brown influence is clearly evident on some of these tracks here.

As regards to the above...What do you call someone who speaks three languages? Tri-lingualWhat do you call someone who speaks two languages? Bi-lingualWhat do you call someone who speaks one language? An American

thanks for all you do and the sharing of your collection and knowledge...Nappyrags

Thank you very much for your sense of humour. But I understand it is hard when living in a continent where there is almost only one language to be able (and even to think being useful) to speak other languages. On the other hand, it is very important not to have only one global language although the english (globbish I would rather say) is this one. So keep alive in North America the other languages that still are spoken and written (Spanish and French). Thanks

Yes Betty James/ Nadine Renaye is really a great blues singer and she deserves certainly to be better known. It would be great if someone in the USA around NYC (I guess) could locate her relatives, notably her granddaughter and interview her. We thus would know much better about this underrated artist.

Betty Renay is generally said to have been a Soul singer from the Detroit area where she recorded a lone 45 for the Ultra City label (see: http://www.sirshambling.com/artists_2012/R/betty_renay/index.php). But you raise an interesting question... After all, Nadine Renaye and Betty James were thought to be two different people for years... Once again, the mystery of this (those?) fine singer would be unveiled only when her relatives will be find and interviewed. I'm pretty sure Betty/Nadine was from Baltimore and lived probably a time in New York. Her son who backed her on her records should be alive and certainly her granddaughter is...

Many thanks for the incredible site! I can't even begin to fathom where you get all this stuff, but it's all so pro level... thanks!

Since I am merely a beginner in music collecting, I would very much appreciate if you could add the original issues of the titles (label, issue number, even issue date?) on the stories. Of course, I can find most of this info online, but sometimes it's just not there...

Thanks. This is the result of almost 55 years of listening, loving, searching and meeting the blues and the bluesmen. For the names of the labels, issues, numbers and such this is too much a work for me to do this on Blue Eye. You can find almost all those on the excellent Blues Discographies (Eyeball Publishers)